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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Poll Reprisal: How much should the U.S. President make?

This week, I decided to reprise an old poll where I (in retrospect) did not give enough options. This poll is from last July:

When I took U.S. History as a high school junior, a question on our test was, "How much does the President of the United States make in a year?" Of course, I had studied hard and I knew the answer was $250,000 (correct at the time). When our teacher returned the tests, I had missed only one question on the test (you can guess which one). It turns out that my penmanship was to blame. As my "2" in 250,000 looked like a "7," I lost four points on the exam. I knew the right answer, but I never forgot that response!

With President Obama's demands on auto executives to take pay cuts and all of the fuss about executive compensation, I thought I would turn the tables in this poll. Instead of asking the all-too-popular question of how much CEOs should make, I want to know what you think America's CEO should make. For your information, the President's salary is currently $400,000 (with $259K in other expense accounts), but he gets to ride in Air Force One, too.

So, how much should the President of the United States make per year?

(a) $1(b) $400,000(c) $10 million(d) the median household income for that year(e) it should be tied to performance

I chose this poll (rather than others) because there was an interesting discussion in the comments of the original poll. For additional things to think about in relation to this issue, click through to the original poll and read the comments.

As with the first time, the poll is open for a week. Vote early. Vote often. Tell your friends, family and your local CEO to vote. The poll is open for a week (it's over there on the sidebar ---->). I look forward to seeing what you think.